That’s pretty clear: if we calculate it this way, Ireland is the champion, with Sweden creeping up in second place.

NON-TRADITIONAL RANKINGS

But is it really fair only to count the winners? Why not take second and third places into account? After all, that’s still impressive in a field of what is now forty-three participating countries. There’s also the fact that the traditional rankings obviously favour the countries that have been involved in the Eurovision Song Contest since the beginning. To put it simply, they’ve had more opportunities to come first.

So, to come up with a more accurate picture, Eurostory has calculated the average score per country. The final position each year was weighted against the number of participants that year. Then the average score for all participating years was calculated.

N.B. 1: If the country does not reach the final, the score is zero. N.B. 2: For the ‘Big Five’, the countries that pay the largest contribution to the European Broadcasting Union and therefore automatically have a place in the final, their results were weighted against the number of countries in the final.

N.B. 3: Some countries have only taken part a couple of times. It doesn’t seem fair to count them, so: countries that have participated fewer than five times are excluded from the list. This means Australia goes (81,1% [-8,4%], four entries), but also Morocco (10,5%), having participated only once. Also the leader, Serbia and Montenegro (90,9%), vanishes from the chart. Following the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro took part as a combined state for two years. After that, each country entered their own participant.

If we line up the scores, this is the result:

Ukraine 78,8 [- 1,2]

Azerbaijan 73,2 [- 7,4]

Russia 70,6 [- 3,4]

Armenia 70,6 [- 5,9]

Italy 66,6 [+ 0,5]

United Kingdom 65,7 [- 0,9]

Sweden 65,0 [+ 0,4]

France 60,9 [- 0,1]

Ireland 59,4 [+ 0,1]

Greece 57,4 [- 1,6]

Romania 57,4 [ – 3,0]

Serbia 56,2 [+ 0,2]

Luxembourg 55,8

Bosnia and Hercegovina 55,8

Denmark54,4 [+ 0,5]

Israel 54,2 [+ 1,1]

Monaco 53,6

Germany 52,9 [+ 0,5]

Moldova 52,1 [+ 2,1]

Spain 49,0 [- 0,6]

Hungary 48,6 [+ 0,3]

Turkey 47,4

Croatia 47,4 [- 2,1]

Norway 47,3 [+ 0,4]

Malta 46,8 [- 1,6]

The Netherlands 46,6 [+ 0,2]

Yugoslavia46,3

Georgia 45,9 [- 4,4]

Switzerland 45,4 [- 0,8]

Cyprus 43,7 [+ 1,6]

Estonia 43,6 [+ 1,8]

Austria 43,1 [+ 1,1]

Belgium 41,0 [- 0,7]

Iceland 40,4 [- 1,3]

Albania 37,2 [+ 2,8]

Latvia 35,3 [- 2,0]

Poland 34,9 [+ 0,2]

Lithuania 34,2 [+ 2,2]

Finland 34,1 [+ 0,2]

Portugal33,4 [+ 0,2]

Slovenia 29,5 [+ 1,0]

Bulgaria 29,2 [+ 3,7]

Macedonia 22,5 [- 1,3]

Belarus 20,8 [- 1,5]

Czech Republic 18,8 [+ 11,6]

Slovakia 13,0

Montenegro 12,1 [- 1,4]

San Marino 4,2 [- 0,5]

Andorra 0,0

Conclusion 1: The top ten is more or less neatly divided between four ‘new’ Eurovision countries and six ‘old’ ones. It should be noted that the United Kingdom, in particular, is relying on past successes.

Conclusion 2: Since last year Czech Republic made the biggest rise, and Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia fell in the rankings.

Conclusion 3: Topping the charts is Ukraine, after leaving the first place to Azerbaijan for just one year in 2017. So, once again: Ukraine is the true Eurovision champion.